Game 7s both thrilling and chilling

For the Blackhawks, it's a boost after falling behind 3-0 in series

for the Canucks, anxiety reigns

The Blackhawks mob Ben Smith after his game-winning goal in overtime sent the series to a Game 7 in Vancouver. (Nuccio DiNuzzo, Chicago Tribune)

Nothing gives the Blackhawks confidence returning to western Canada with their season on the line more than two words that practically were forbidden to mention last week in Chicago.

No, not Roberto Luongo.

They are the two most thrilling words in sports.

Two words interpreted differently by the two NHL playoff opponents Tuesday night at Rogers Arena in Vancouver. Two words that, depending on which side of the border you come from, strike anticipation or anxiety into the hockey cities impacted by what unfolds there.

Game 7.

Game 7 guarantees that anything can happen, and everything usually does.

Game 7 decides the best team by the scoreboard, not the standings, reducing the success or failure of a season that started six months ago into what happens in 60 minutes — or more if overtime is needed.

Game 7, in the case of Blackhawks-Canucks, means the winner goes on to the conference semifinals with good reason to believe it can reach the Stanley Cup finals, while the loser goes golfing.

Game 7 makes the Hawks smile and the Canucks wince.

For the No. 8-seeded Hawks, those two words represent possibility and pride and all the intangible qualities that make the defending Stanley Cup champions a hockey team nobody dares underestimate anymore after its recovery from a 3-0 series deficit.

For the No. 1-seeded Canucks, they signify something entirely different, the dark tunnel of playoff uncertainty everybody in British Columbia thought the best team in the league this year finally had escaped until the walls closed in Sunday at the United Center.

For a Hawks team too inconsistent for its own good this season, Game 7 provides a shot at hockey parole and a fresh start. For the Canucks, it's more like a one-game sentence that, with bad behavior, could be extended for long, painful months.

"If they lose, we'll have something to talk about all week … heck, all summer really," said CHMJ-AM sports-talk host Bob Marjanovich in Vancouver. "But I think there's some optimism in Vancouver because the hockey club actually played pretty well in Game 6. Clearly there's concern too because, well, it's the Blackhawks."

After all, the Hawks have ended the Canucks' season the last two years, so many western Canadians dread their arrival more than last call. As Hawks senior advisor Scotty Bowman pointed out, if the Canucks don't seize the game early, victory will be harder to grasp. That reality of the pressure facing the hosts is what made Canucks GM Mike Gillis' whining about officials Monday all the more transparent.

"No question the longer the game goes with suspense in it, the more it favors the road team in Game 7 situations," Bowman said before boarding the Hawks' team plane.

Nobody knows the realities of playoff hockey better than Bowman, who won nine Cups. No NHL coach has more playoff wins than Bowman's 223. So Bowman has won and lost enough elimination games to know what Game 7 participants must eliminate.

"The main thing is you can't go in with a lot of nerves or anxiety because that's not going to help you play," he said. "Sometimes people think home ice is a factor, but I don't think where it's played matters or affects how you play."

How well the Hawks have played the past three games didn't shock Bowman. Nor did Canucks coach Alain Vigneault unnecessarily creating his own distraction by benching Luongo in Game 6 for a rookie with no playoff experience, Cory Schneider.

Anything about the past six memorable games surprise you, Scotty?

"Nope," Bowman said. "All of the series are really oddball."

Odds are we can expect more of the unexpected in Game 7.

That's just the wacky, wonderful NHL playoffs. In 1994, to offer just one example, Bowman's Red Wings entered the playoffs with the league's best record, like the Canucks this season. And the Wings lost Game 7 at home to the eighth-seeded Sharks.

In '92, Bowman's Penguins team that eventually won the Cup trailed the Capitals 3-1 in the first-round series and needed a Game 7 maneuver to survive.

"We were a high-scoring team, but we decided to change our tactics and tighten up and play defensive hockey," Bowman said. "Sometimes coaches do that in Game 7s. But I don't think these teams will change their styles very much."

Nope. The Canucks cling to the fact they improved their play overall in Game 6. The Hawks feel better about themselves than they have since Patrick Kane celebrated his game-winner last June in Philadelphia.

And why shouldn't they, the way they're playing?

They realize only three NHL teams have blown 3-0 playoff series leads in Game 7s: the 1942 Red Wings to the Maple Leafs, the 1975 Penguins to the Islanders and the 2010 Bruins to the Flyers. Only one other team in all of sports shares such ignominy, the 2004 Yankees, who couldn't stop the Red Sox from winning four straight in American League Championship Series.

The Hawks know three of the four teams in the historical company they want to keep won Game 7s on the road. And visiting NHL playoff teams have won eight of the 10 Game 7s in the last two postseasons.

That Game 7 history gives the Hawks hope. It should give the Canucks hives.